carb/vacuum issue???

Not sure if it's my carb but here is my scenario. When diving my rod up a steep hill it acts like it has no horse power. On a straight away I can gun it and haul some ***, but when I REALLY punch it it kinda stalls out or something. I'm thinking this may be a vacuum issue on my carb... I don't know much about motors and carbs but trying too learn.

I was looking at my carb the other day and I noticed some of the lines I put rubber plugs on had cracked (I guess the plugs were too small). I replaced the plugs with one size bigger and they seem to be okay... however I noticed one of the lines was not plugged at all. Not knowing much about motors I didn't know if this originally didn't need a plug or the this plug ccracked as well and fell completely off.

Does every line need to be plugged on the carb except the distributor vacuum and the other vacuum hose that comes out of the carb and goes back in the carb (I'm guessing some sort of fuel vacuum). In other words, all lines plugged except 2 hoses??????

I hope this makes sense. I'm going to buy a new Edelbrock 500 cfm carb soon but for now I just have the stock Quadrajet.

 

let's see pics.

 

What engine and cam? An Edelbrock 500 may not be right for you. If you have a quadrajet that is old, the dash pot/s on the carb may be worn out. One of these will lock out your secondaries on some quads.

 

It's a 350 SB Chevy. The only thing I swapped out so far is the cam... for a 327/375 hp (Mellings) cam. Stock 4bbl cast intake with stock Quadrajet carb. Not really a muscle machine... just a cruiser. I will get pics up in a minute of the specific line I'm talking about.

 

Here you go. You can see the two plugs... and the third inlet/oulet that has no pug. Should it be plugged?

 

Step #1........put your finger on the pipe with engine running at idle. Does it have vacuum?

 

pretty sure that's straight manifold vacuum and should be plugged, but yeah - when in doubt put your thumb on it.

 

I'll check it in the morning... with the thumb technique.

 

I plugged it and drove around some and it helped a bit but it seems to be bogging out still some on steep hills.

Can a bad carb effect downshifts too?

 

I read an article to see how to check if your running lean or rich. It said to start the motor and drive out the pin to unhook the accelerator pump. Push the throttle a few times. If it feels more responsive with the accelerator pump disconnected then it's running rich... if the hesitation if worse then it's lean. If there is no change what so ever then the accelerator pump is bad.

Does this sound right? Can I check it like this?

 

I stopped using the rubber vacuum caps like you have because it can be hard to see if they are torn or cracked. The smooth plastic style caps have worked well for me.